If b.) sounds more appealing, start your Comic-Con day by sitting at the 14 feet of seven sages – the founders of Image Comics, 10:30 a.m., Room 5AB. Or attend “DC Talent Search Orientation,” 10:30 a.m., Room 4, where the folks behind “Superman” and Mad will reveal what they seek in artists. Or deliver your resumé to IDW Publishing, Booth 2229 on the exhibit floor. The San Diego firm, owner of the “30 Days of Night” and “Transformers” franchises, needs an editor.

But you're not here to work – you're here for the opera. Free tickets to the 3 p.m. performance of “Too Much Coffee Man: The Opera” can be scored from Shannon Wheeler, the cartoonist behind TMCM, at Booth 2200. (Tickets are also available for tomorrow's 1:30 and 11 p.m. presentations.) The show plays the Horton Grand Theatre, 444 Fourth Ave.; the other saps in the audience had to pay $25 for the privilege.

We'll nap through the “300” video preview – saw it in the theater, and those two hours seemed like 300. But we need a seat in Hall H for the 3:15 p.m. Warner Bros. Home Video session because it also features the director's cut of “Blade Runner.” Director Ridley Scott, co-star Sean Young, designer and “futurist” Syd Mead and FX wizard Mark Stetson will speak.

Haven't blown your allowance on “Peanuts” reprints? For $500 you can swan about with best-selling author Laurell K. Hamilton, at a reception for 25 in a secret downtown location. Reservations for this Comic Book Legal Defense Fund fundraiser can be made at www.cbldf.org. Or applaud the best in the business at the 19th-annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, 8:30 p.m., Ballroom 20. Celebrity presenters include “Reno 911's” Tom Lennon and Ben Garant, comedian Brian Posehn and comic book stars Sergio Aragones, Alison Bechdel and Eric Powell. You'll be supporting the industry and – unlike the Hamilton soiree – it's free.